Project Based Section 8 Rental Assistance

The Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 created the project-based Section 8 rental assistance program. Under the program, HUD enters into contracts with property owners to provide rental assistance for a fixed period of time for low-income families. Project-based Section 8 assistance may be provided only for tenants with incomes no greater than 80 percent of the area median income (AMI) and tenants generally pay rent equal to 30 percent of adjusted household income.

HFAs and Project Based Section 8
In 1999, HUD began an initiative to contract out the oversight and administration of most of its project-based contracts; some were contracted out to State Housing Finance Agencies. These HFAs are now responsible for conducting on-site management reviews of assisted projects; adjusting contract rents; reviewing, processing, and paying monthly vouchers submitted by owners; renewing contracts with property owners; and responding to health and safety issues at the property. These performance-based contract administrators (PBCAs) now administer the majority of project-based Section 8 contracts.

HFAs administer Section 8 project-based contracts subsidizing more than 650,000 apartments, including 250,000 apartments in properties they have financed and more than 400,000 apartments formerly administered by HUD. Advocating for enough HUD funding to honor existing project-based assistance commitments is one of NCSHA’s Legislative Priorities. Another priority is to aggressively represent the interests of HFAs in HUD’s PBCA program and ensure that HUD recognizes HFAs’ proven capacity and track record to serve as PBCAs.

NCSHA Blog Posts

On November 16, HUD published in the Federal Register the final rule implementing housing provisions under the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA) as it applies to HUD programs. The rule codifies VAWA core protections across covered HUD programs to ensure individuals are not denied assistance, evicted, or have their assistance terminated because of their status as victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking, or for being affiliated with a victim.

On October 24, HUD published in the Federal Register the initial implementation guidance for the Housing Opportunity through Modernization Act (HOTMA). HUD’s guidance clarifies which statutory provisions went into effect immediately upon the President signing HOTMA into law and which provisions will be phased in as HUD promulgates further regulations.

News

On February 28, 2011, the U.S. Department for Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued an Invitation for Submission of Application for Contract Administrators to bid for the Project-Based (Section 8) Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) contracts for the state of Kentucky.

Events

Project Based Section 8 - Resources

While we strongly support the goals articulated in the SAFMR proposed rule, including expanding housing choice and access to high-opportunity neighborhoods for voucher holders, we are concerned that implementation of SAFMRs as envisioned in the proposed rule may have unintended consequences that could negatively impact some voucher holders, particularly those in high-cost metropolitan areas with low vacancy rates, and create problems for developments that rely on rental assistance from Project-Based Vouchers (PBV). We also are concerned that HUD may be underestimating the administrative burden public housing authorities (PHA), including state HFAs, will incur if required to implement SAFMRs.

At last measure in 2013, over one in four renters, or 11.2 million renter households, were
severely burdened by rents that took up over half their incomes. This total represented
a slight reduction from the record level of 11.3 million set in 2011, but remains
dramatically higher than the start of the last decade, having risen by more than 3 million since
2000. With substantial growth in renter households expected over the next decade and little sign
of a turnaround in the income and rent trends that produced these record levels of cost burdens,
there is little prospect for substantial improvement in these conditions over the coming decade.